compéter

See also: competer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin competere.

Pronunciation

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Verb

compéter

1. (law) to be competent; to have jurisdiction

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written compéter-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written compèter-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

infinitive	simple	compéter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	compétant /kɔ̃.pe.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		compété /kɔ̃.pe.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	compète /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compètes /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compète /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compétons /kɔ̃.pe.tɔ̃/	compétez /kɔ̃.pe.te/	compètent /kɔ̃.pɛt/
	imperfect	compétais /kɔ̃.pe.tɛ/	compétais /kɔ̃.pe.tɛ/	compétait /kɔ̃.pe.tɛ/	compétions /kɔ̃.pe.tjɔ̃/	compétiez /kɔ̃.pe.tje/	compétaient /kɔ̃.pe.tɛ/
	past historic2	compétai /kɔ̃.pe.te/	compétas /kɔ̃.pe.ta/	compéta /kɔ̃.pe.ta/	compétâmes /kɔ̃.pe.tam/	compétâtes /kɔ̃.pe.tat/	compétèrent /kɔ̃.pe.tɛʁ/
	future	compèterai or compéterai /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁe/	compèteras or compéteras /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁa/	compètera or compétera /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁa/	compèterons or compéterons /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɔ̃/	compèterez or compéterez /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁe/	compèteront or compéteront /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	compèterais or compéterais /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɛ/	compèterais or compéterais /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɛ/	compèterait or compéterait /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɛ/	compèterions or compéterions /kɔ̃.pɛ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	compèteriez or compéteriez /kɔ̃.pɛ.tə.ʁje/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tə.ʁje/	compèteraient or compéteraient /kɔ̃.pɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ̃.pe.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	compète /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compètes /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compète /kɔ̃.pɛt/	compétions /kɔ̃.pe.tjɔ̃/	compétiez /kɔ̃.pe.tje/	compètent /kɔ̃.pɛt/
	imperfect2	compétasse /kɔ̃.pe.tas/	compétasses /kɔ̃.pe.tas/	compétât /kɔ̃.pe.ta/	compétassions /kɔ̃.pe.ta.sjɔ̃/	compétassiez /kɔ̃.pe.ta.sje/	compétassent /kɔ̃.pe.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	compète /kɔ̃.pɛt/	—	compétons /kɔ̃.pe.tɔ̃/	compétez /kɔ̃.pe.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Conjugation of compéter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

Related terms

• compétence
• compétent
• compétition

Further reading

• “compéter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.